CJA SPEAKS OUT!

The Committee for Joint Action (CJA) is preparing to relameh itself into the political space with a bang.

 Sources close to the CJA say it is feverishly planning a major press conference for Thursday, January 30, 2014 in Accra.

 The Conference will be addressed by convener, Mr. Kwasi Adu and all leading Members are expected to be in attendance.

 It will focus attention on the fight against corruption and hardship and outline the CJA’s perspectives for 2014.

 The CJA a cross party pressure group was formed largely in response to petrol price hikes under the Kufour administration.

Since then it has become a platform for the promotion of the principles of probity and accountability in public office.

The CJA organises public discussions, demonstrations and media engagements in order to press home its point.

It organised and led a major campaign against the privatisation of Ghana Telecom under the Kufour administration.

It has also been very critical of the Mahama administration’s policy of full cost recovery which has resulted in huge increases in the prices of petroleum products and utility tariffs

GMOs, Economic Bait We Must Avoid

By Felix Amegashie

At the heart of the debate on GMOs is the socio-economic issue of food security and the politics of who controls our agriculture, our food supplies, our imports and our farm inputs.

Inasmuch as data and information available online, concurs with the school of thought that GMOs do not pose any health hazards to consumers, the fact remains that multinational conglomerates supported by the WHO and the EU who have pumped millions of Euros and dollars into research and production of seeds for GMOs, would be looking forward to the harvest where every Euro pumped into this work will be recovered with interest especially in Africa.

I am convinced that the demonization of the African continent by mostly western media as a continent of hunger and poverty directs the minds, hearts and thoughts of the world to the fact that Africa needs investment in food to reduce hunger and GMOs come handy as a sustainable solution to the droughts, hunger and poverty that Africa finds herself entangled in. 

After all, Africa bears the brunt of the adverse effects of global warming caused mainly by industrialized nations. Our farmers are becoming poorer by the day and our climate is threatening the sustainability of organic and rain-fed agriculture. 

While we look on helpless as the world feeds fat on the riches of our continent, we are being tied by trade agreements that open us up for stiffer competition around the world and such economically poisonous ventures like GMOs are being washed down our throats. 

They know our leaders and the media have high libido for corruption and they simply can’t walk away from bribery and underhand dealings. In view of this interests backing GMOs have penetrated deep into corridors of power on the continent and paid heavily to court the favours of loud-mouthed politicians, media practitioners and more corrupt civil society organizations to execute this dangerous agenda.

More bizarre is the carte blanche our borders have granted our ‘development partners’ and their conglomerates to the extent that what we have left is a turf for two mammoths to fight on while the grass grows pail beneath their struggle for dominance and supremacy on the continent; our parliament has already passed the law on GMOs and the seed companies eyeing Ghana are on a war of words as to who gains entry into the country to do business.

I ask, how come our parliament and our government let alone the ECOWAS countries couldn’t have pooled bio-technologists across board and established a common research and approach to bio-tech and seed technology that remains here with us, is used and produced so what would be used for future imports of seeds, equipment, fertilizers and chemicals to sustain the production of these GMOs would remain in the sub-region and boost our economies?

Are we about to miss another opportunity in industrial revolution or in agricultural revolution to which we have large parcels of arable land and fresh water to benefit hugely from both organic and GMOs farming?

The danger is that we would be creating jobs, markets, and downstream industries for GMOs in advanced economies while our farmers continue to linger in poverty and our currency continue to face harsh pressures which will ultimately tell heavily on our balance of payments. 

WE are neck deep in loans with payback periods between 10 to 50 years and now we are expanding the frontiers of imports with this GMO bait that is being dangled in front of us. WE will be done for if we allowed foreign interests to control our food security

Who is Afraid of Gays?

By Joseph Rotimi

The gay rights movement appears to be a really sore point during these turbulent times of globalization.  It appears as if everywhere you turn in the media, especially the western media someone is ‘coming out’ as gay and wants the world to know.  Gay right legislation has become something very serious to aim at and is equated with other fundamental human rights.  The most powerful nations in the world are urging the dependent ones to pursue gay rights as a matter of urgency, going so far as to make such legislation imperative for diplomatic cooperation and aid guarantees. 

Homosexuality and bestiality have been practiced by humans since ancient times and most religions for reasons not precisely spelt out have indicated the undesirability of both behaviours by establishing punishments as harsh as a death sentence on anyone found guilty of such practices.  For some reasons that are not entirely clear the issue has become a political hot potato with careers destroyed simply by opposing or saying anything that comes close to bigotry against homosexuals.  Recently, Nigeria passed a law that essentially makes indulging in homosexual activities a punishable crime.  The law was passed by Nigeria’s lawmakers after much debate and deliberations with the a priori assumption that the conclusions reached reflected the views of most Nigerians.   Within the last few weeks it has been reported that some homosexuals have been arrested in parts of northern Nigeria.  A writer however, has claimed that there are many homosexuals in the corridors of power and that passing such a law was hypocritical and unnecessary – agreed. 

The government of Canada, Britain and the United States have previously indicated their willingness to punish Nigeria if the rights of gays are not respected.  In fact, the government of Canada has just cancelled a state visit by the Nigerian president ostensibly to make good its initial threat of ostracization if gay rights are not respected by the government.  

Whenever the western world becomes consumed with an idea for war or peace they normally need allies.  Nigeria has had gays amongst its population for eons without anyone being arrested, stoned or killed.  But now through western prodding, gay right is made to look like an issue of national emergency that we have to quickly legislate and pass laws for.   Gays are tolerated in the western world but only have full rights of marriage and other benefits in a few states of the United States for example.   Some of the states within the US have rejected the granting of rights to gays while some appear to be more liberal about it.  

However, in most nations where gays have rights there was proper legislation before the granting of those rights and Nigeria cannot be different.  For Canada and Britain to imply that we need to be punished because of a legislated law in Nigeria is to say the least patronizing.   Probably as colonial masters who still have their stooges in power they cannot contemplate Nigeria calling their bluff. The sexuality of a man or woman should be personal.   Apart from which we have values and ethos that cannot be controlled from Washington or London because these values are part of who we are as a people. 

I keep wondering why they have not given most mid-eastern countries an ultimatum to legislate for gay rights even though there are gays in those countries.  The Nigerian government has lived with its gay community for a long time without killing them off – because we saw no advantage in that.  Let whoever wants to be gay continue in his or her way – in private, just as heterosexuals do. The push by the west for the world to embrace homosexuality as a state policy smacks of a hidden agenda.  In its interaction with those it considers less ‘fortunate’ the west never pushes for anything with such seriousness unless there is some underlying reason – which is normally selfish. 

Any society that holds to some form of values [good or bad] is a threat to global capitalism which has no values or ethos but is ruled by hunt for raw materials, money and what it can buy.  There are other rights to fight for, which could end poverty, hunger and wars in Africa but this is not their aim.  I think the aim is to ultimately have all societies, wherever they are on the planet, to be a poor imitation of the western world so that when the trumpet sounds, hell would not be left unfilled.

Echos From The Past

Adamafio, Adjei & Coffie Crabbe Discharged

The Special Criminal Division of the High Court today acquitted and discharged Tawia Adamafio, Ako Adjei and H.H. Coffie-Crabbe of conspiracy to commit treason and treason.

The court, constituted Sir Arku Korsah, Chief Justice (President) Mr Justice W.B.Van Lare had Mr. Justice Akuffo Addo; both senior judges the Supreme Court did it believed the evidence of Malam Mama …… Joseph Adotei Addo.

Sir Arku said the court is satisfied with the evidence given by Mr D. Amaning, Deputy Commissioner of Police, that statements taken from Otchere were all voluntary.

The Special Court also found Yaw Manu guilty of conspiracy to commit treason and treason.

The court dismissed the third count of misprision of treason against Yaw Manu, which it said, did not arise since Yaw Manu had been found guilty of treason. 

The court said it was satisfied that Yaw Manu's visits to Lome were on his own purposes for attending meetings with the conspirators. 

It said it believed Manu was in constant touch with the conspirators "and that he played an important part in the conspiracy”.

Adamafio kept scratching his head as the Chief Justice began reviewing his evidence and the case of the prosecution against him. 

At the time of going to Press, the Chief Justice, Sir Arku Korsah, presiding over the court, was still reading judgment while deep silence brooded over an anxious court-even the fall of a pin could be heard. 

(First Published in the Evening News of Monday, December 9, 1963)

South Sudan—Another failed experiment in self-rule?

South Sudanese President Salva Kiir

By Dr. Michael J.K. Bokor

Folks, by now, you must have heard of the turmoil in South Sudan, the world’s newest country and Africa’s 55th.

It all began sometime before July this year when in-fighting within the ranks of the SPLM government exploded with President Salva Kiir dismissing his Vice (Riek Machar) and the entire Cabinet in the hope that his authority as the head of state would stay intact. Nothing seemed to have happened immediately thereafter to endanger his government, the country, and the citizens, even though the under-current was strongly being felt that the country was sitting on a time-bomb.

Already, the tension arising from disputes with Al-Bashir’s Sudan over many critical issues, especially the petroleum industry, had strained nerves and sparked off some skirmishes.

Just when the relations with Sudan were being smoothed, BOOOOOOOOM!! Trouble in South Sudan as fighting broke out last week in the national capital city (Juba), which President Kiir quickly blamed on his former Vice, accusing him of attempting a coup.

Since then, the situation has assumed ugly dimensions, not only deteriorating but also shifting very fast to the possibility of a civil war.

The country is fast tearing apart and likely to be engulfed by a civil war as the two ethnic groups—the Dinka and Nuer—whose members constitute the government (or whatever is left of it) pit their strengths against each other and dig in.

President Kiir, a member of the majority Dinka ethnic group, sacked Mr. Machar, who is from the Nuer community, in July.

The violence which broke out in Juba last weekend has since spread, pitting gangs of Nuer and Dinka against each other, according to the BBC.

What began as a dissident action (two versions coming from the government and its opponents, respectively) is now a major national catastrophe that will likely engulf the entire region.

Here is the frightening scenario that is emerging:

“I was buying some things for my children in the market on Tuesday when I saw two people dressed in normal civilian clothes shot dead in front of me by people in military clothing.

“I don't know if they were the army or rebels. I didn't wait to see”—Mogga Lado, a resident of Juba, told the BBC).

As the UN Humanitarian Coordinator (Toby Lanzer) has put it, there is definitely an atmosphere of fear and desperation as violence escalates.

He told the BBC about summary executions in Bor, in the restive state of Jonglei that has fallen to rebels. In addition to Jonglei, the rebels now control Bentiu, the capital of oil-rich Unity State. South Sudan’s economy depends on oil production in Bentiu, with 95% of its total revenue coming from there.

So, folks, right in front of our eyes, South Sudan is collapsing, not because it cannot stand on its own as an independent country, but because those entrusted with management of affairs are fighting for power.

We note the long and tortuous history behind this new country and the bitter struggle waged by Col. John Garang and his Sudanese people’s Liberation Army (SPLA) before his own death and the circumstances leading to the Moslem-dominated Sudan’s agreeing to grant independence to the mostly animist and Christian south.

Regardless of the negative impact of Sudan’s grips on that part of the country, the reality is that the fighting going on now could have been prevented had the main characters acted properly to put nation above personal whims and capricious desire for power. It is not as if that power will be used to benefit the people. It hasn’t been so in Africa all these years!

So, now, the international community is looking on as South Sudan cracks. The US has already taken the first step to evacuate its citizens from there. China has also moved to ensure its citizens’ safety and security. All others that have interests in the area are taking prompt action to secure them.

Two Indian soldiers have died in the crisis while four US service personnel on the evacuation mission were injured by gun fire from sources not yet confirmed as rebels or pro-government.

On Sunday, the UN mission in South Sudan (UNMISS) said it had begun relocating staff from the capital Juba to the Ugandan city of Entebbe. Its precincts had already been sheltering thousands of citizens fleeing from the escalating violence. Even then, there are reports of some of the refugees being killed there.

Now, here is the catch. In less than two years of becoming an independent country, South Sudan is already unstable. With Machar’s forces rampaging and doing all they can to assert the rebels’ crave for power and the government forces’ determination to crack down on them, will we have peace and stability there soon?

Mediation efforts are in progress but there seems to be no common ground. Mr. Machar told the BBC on Saturday that he was prepared to negotiate with the government if politicians arrested this week were released and transferred to a neutral country such as Ethiopia. Mr. Kiir had also agreed to negotiations after meeting African mediators on Friday.

Or will we have the country broken into two to give us South Sudan and South-South Sudan? It is regrettable that the country should be falling to its knees so soon. No doubt, another failed African experiment in self-governance.

The mediation going on will achieve very little because it will be exceedingly difficult for the bitter enemies to sink their differences and agree to work as a team. Will President Kiir restore Mr. Machar and the dismissed Cabinet members to their former status? With what consequences?

And now that Mr. Machar is assured of his forces’ ability to over-run the government forces, will he rein them in? With what implications for his own political ambitions?

Definitely, the stage is set for a damaging implosion that will further worsen the plight of the millions of citizens who have stood by destitute and hopeless while their country’s resources become the bone of contention between greedy, hard-hearted, and politically ambitious marauding gangsters abusing their trust to achieve the self-aggrandizement that politics in Africa offers them.

I shall return…

E-mail: mjbokor@yahoo.com

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The global plutocracy

By Andre Damon and Barry Grey

On the eve of the annual spectacle of parasitic wealth and power that is the World Economic Forum in the Alpine resort town of Davos, Switzerland, the Oxfam charity has issued a report warning of the unprecedented growth of social inequality throughout the world.

Describing a planet in the malevolent grip of a handful of plutocrats, the report states that the richest 85 people in the world control as much wealth as the bottom 50 percent of the world's population—3.5 billion people! It notes that the richest 1 percent today controls 46 percent of the world’s wealth. Oxfam writes: “The wealth of the one percent richest people in the world amounts to $110 trillion… 65 times the total wealth of the bottom half of the world’s population.”

The report includes a chart showing that since 2008, the United States has had the largest increase in social inequality of any developed country.

The impoverishment of the working class on the one side and further enrichment of the financial elite on the other have accelerated since the Wall Street crash of that year. While the wealth of the world’s billionaires has doubled, there are today over 1 billion people living on less than a dollar per day, and nearly half the world’s population, more than 3 billion people, subsist on less than $2.50 per day.

The same day Oxfam issued its study, the International Labor Organization reported that the number of unemployed people worldwide grew by 5 million in 2013, to 202 million. The ILO predicted that the ranks of the unemployed would continue to rise in 2014.

There is no parallel in human history to the immense concentration of wealth that exists today, nor to the extremes of parasitism and decadence that constitute the “new normal.” Contemporary capitalism—what the ruling class and its political and media flunkies call the “free enterprise system”—has created a world in which every policy decision is dictated by the need to protect and increase the wealth of an infinitesimal portion of the world’s population.

This global plutocracy—by definition, a society governed by the wealthy—generates a huge and ever-increasing portion of the ruling elite’s wealth not from the production of useful products and expansion of society’s productive capacities, but from the manipulation of money, speculation and outright swindling—essentially criminal activities that are destructive of the productive forces.

A few hundred people, backed by an army of bribed politicians, academic apologists, intelligence spooks, experts of all sorts and the repressive force of the military and police, hold civilization by the throat and threaten to destroy it to satisfy their insatiable greed.

This social—or, to be more precise, anti-social—element is virulently hostile to the people, contemptuous of democratic rights, and militaristic.

In its effort to expand its personal wealth, it relentlessly attacks the living standards of the working class—the vast majority of the population. All over the world, governments controlled by the plutocrats impose ever more painful austerity, cutting wages, slashing jobs, dismantling social programs, closing schools, gutting health care. State treasuries are emptied to provide bailouts to the banks and corporations and central banks pump trillions into the financial markets to drive up stock prices, corporate profits and CEO pay. All legal restrictions on profit-making are lifted.

To deal with the opposition of the workers, governments are systematically criminalizing organized resistance by the working class. In countries across Europe, every significant strike is met with legal bans and police violence.

Petrified at the prospect of social revolution, they are putting in place the infrastructure of a global totalitarian police state, as revealed by the revelations of former National Security Agency contractor Edward Snowden.

Competing cliques of plutocrats, using their national states as bases of operation, invade weaker countries and occupy and plunder them without mercy, inflicting death and destruction. In the struggle against their rivals for control of territories, markets, resources and cheap labor, they turn the planet into an armed camp and threaten to plunge mankind into a third world war, this time with the prospect of nuclear annihilation.

The rich and the super-rich will be on display this week at Davos, the yearly event at which government officials and leaders of global agencies such as the United Nations, the European Union, the World Bank and the International Monetary Fund come to pay obeisance to billionaire bankers and corporate CEOs.

The global financial elite is preparing, in the words of one commentator, “to jet to the World Economic Forum 5,000 feet up in the Swiss Alps in their helicopters, mink-clad trophy wives in tow.” The cost of attending the conference, estimated by CNN at around $40,000 per person, is about 50 percent greater than what a typical worker in the US makes in a year.

This conference has announced that the “problem” of social inequality will be a central topic of discussion.

The masses all over the world are becoming increasingly outraged over this criminal layer, which they hate and despise. It is only a matter of time before that anger is transformed into action.

The moneyed elite is haunted by the specter of social upheaval and revolution. They received a taste of it three years ago in the mass working class uprising that brought down the Mubarak dictatorship in Egypt. They have seen social explosions in Europe and anticipations of coming upheavals in the United States.

That they have been able to hold onto power is above all due to the treachery of the trade union bureaucracies, aided by their apologists in the right-wing organizations that call themselves “left,” such as the International Socialist Organization in the United States, the New Anti-capitalist Party in France, the Left Party in Germany, and Syriza in Greece.

The more perceptive and far-sighted defenders of the capitalist system are warning that the present situation is unsustainable. Last week, the Financial Times ’ chief economic commentator Martin Wolf penned a comment entitled, “Failing elites threaten our future,” in which he warned of the growing threat of social revolution.

Citing the 100th anniversary of World War I, the first global catastrophe that signaled the death agony of capitalism and precipitated the Russian revolution three years later, Wolf warned that the “globalized economic and financial elite … have become ever more detached from the countries that produced them …The narrow distribution of the gains of economic growth greatly enhances this development. This, then, is ever more a plutocracy.”

Since the financial breakdown of 2008, he wrote, the “economic, financial, intellectual and political elites” have discredited themselves. “If elites continue to fail,” he concluded, “we will go on watching the rise of angry populists. The elites need to do better. If they do not, rage may overwhelm us all.”

The people of the world are confronted with the question: What is to be done with this anti-social and criminal layer that is strangling the planet? Nothing can be changed by appealing to the “better angels” of the plutocracy, as Oxfam would do. Nor by appealing to the elite’s rational faculties, as Wolf seeks to do.

As a matter of social hygiene and basic survival, the wealth of this parasitic layer must be expropriated. The working class, organized as an independent political force, must seize it and use it to meet crying social needs—jobs, health care, education, housing, nutrition, access to culture and art.

The death-grip of the plutocrats over finance and industry must be broken. The banks and corporations must be taken out of private hands and placed under public ownership and democratic control. There is only one way this can be done: by means of the revolutionary transformation of society and the establishment of socialism.

Ghanaians indeed have a short memory!!

President John Mahama

By Dr. Michael J.K. Bokor

Fellow Ghanaians, President Mahama has said something worth unpacking to cast in the proper perspective the reality of the Ghanaian situation. And why it is difficult to move the country forward.

He says that “Ghanaians have a very short memory,” which makes them easily forget about the achievements made by his administration. In a jest, he told a congregation in Accra at the inauguration of the Revival Restoration Centre of the Assemblies of God Church at Roman Ridge, Accra, on Saturday that “Ghanaians easily forget how far, how much progress has been made in the country vis-à-vis their present circumstances”.

President Mahama’s “jest” is not misplaced. It has an antecedent that must be recognized for all that it tells us about ourselves. I won’t bother going into details but I will just recall what the late Kutu Acheampong said that “Ghanaians are difficult people” to contextualize President Mahama’s claim.

Acheampong had his faults; but considering the euphoria that welcomed him into office, as was done the those who overthrow Nkrumah and would also be done to Acheampong himself, Akuffo, and Hilla Limann, one will be dishonest to reject Acheampong’s claim. It is a true reflection of the Ghanaian condition and temperament.

A lot exists to substantiate that claim. Those who doubt it need to do a serious introspection to understand the dynamics of contemporary Ghanaian politics.

And, as is to be expected, those doing “book politics” and banded together in the NPP cabal are up on their feet, over-turning President Mahama’s genuine claim to jab him with vain taunts: that he should rather be grateful to Ghanaians for tolerating his incompetence. Ask them whether Ghanaians didn’t know of that “incompetence” before electing him at Election 2012 and they respond with insults. Tweaaaaaa!!

Ghanaians are more prone to complaining than recognizing the fact that nation-building is a collective effort that involves them too. It is a hard fact they won’t admit. President Mahama has said it all already that the cynics wishing his downfall will be serving Ghana better if they get on board. Good job, Mr. President.

Some of us easily equate the Ghanaian to the olden days Israelites (not today’s Israelis) to suggest that no matter what was done to relieve them of their worries, they remained ungrateful and unrepentant of their wily ways. They found more pleasure in complaining, even when provided with manna in the wilderness.

They were also really quick to repudiate the one redeeming them as soon as they regained their old selves. Ingratitude is the mark that identifies such people for what they are. And they are always dogged by trouble. Those good at reading and interpreting the Old Testament can best understand what the issues are. The olden days Israelites and their dealings with God have lessons to teach us. Forget about today’s Israelis. An Israelite, to me, is not the same as an Israeli. So is it with Ghanaians.

Undeniable truth: Ghana is a blessed country, a rare example of a country on earth that has all the natural and human resources to make it a heaven-on-earth for its citizens and those tagging on to them for some kind of survival and fulfillment on this wretched earth.

Ghana has everything to warrant its being accorded the highest regard by the whole world. If you doubt my claim, just take a cursory tour of the country. And then, consider the throwback to the old Ghana Empire that collapsed in 1240 AD because of the shortsightedness of the people who fought among themselves and opened the way for the Almoravids from the Berber territory to over-run the Empire.

I am indebted to the late Ghanaian historian, Albert Adu Boahen (an unsuccessful NPP Presidential Candidate), who said in his _Topics on West African History_ that “in the first place, the Ghana Empire was not a homogeneous entity”, an explanation for why it was so easy for the Almoravids to over-run such a rich Empire to reduce it to rubble and occasion its total destruction in 1240 AD despite its natural and human resources.

If we can’t make any progress in this part of the world, should we go any further? We are largely the cause of our own doom. A hard fact to be admitted and factored into how we work to build our country today, long after the marauding European forces had left us to our destiny.

Emerging from this paralyzing period of subjugation, what have we been able to do to prove that “the black man is capable of managing his own affairs (Dr. Nkrumah recalled here)?

Are we so lousy as not to know how to use what we have to develop our country? How many countries in this world have the array of natural and human resources that we have? Gold, diamond, bauxite, manganese, lumber, limestone, fine-grained sand, petroleum, cocoa, rubber, coffee, sheanuts, and many more economically viable fauna and flora? How about a smooth well-endowed continental shelf? Not to talk about the marine and inland water resources?

How many countries have such a widespread array of arable land, cutting across all geographic resources—Sahel, Savanna, tropical rain forest, etc.? How about the mountainous regions and the plains of irrigable land? How about the Volta River and the numerous water resources?

Are we Ghanaians really too sick as not to know what we have at our disposal to turn our country into a heaven-on-earth? Why, then, are we still underdeveloped? Why aren’t we able to take advantage of these natural and human resources to be on top of the world? What is our handicap?

Self-acquisitiveness has taken over from everything needed for national development. Where will we go with all that? It is clear that a mad rat race is in motion and nothing can stop it. Unfortunate!!

Don’t tell me that we have to blame our leaders for our mishap. They are human beings as we are and have their own aspirations to satisfy, which is now fast becoming their undoing. If people under them don’t push them, they can’t go off course. Isn’t the fault eventually, then, ours?

Nation-building is not limited to leaders alone. No leader can move his country forward with uncooperative citizens. What have we, the citizens, been able to do to change the paradigm? Why is it that we put in office those we think can lead us out of the woods only to turn round to condemn them after just a few months of their stewardship? Is the fault not with us rather?

Within this context, it is imperative that we re-examine ourselves to see where our own posturing, habits of mind, and uncompromising attitudes undermine the authority of the very leaders that we have chosen to help us solve our problems contribute to the dilemma. We need to do more than we have done so far. Let’s stop being fault-finders and rather determine what our role is and play it properly to develop our country.

I shall return…

E-mail: mjbokor@yahoo.com

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The ethics of conditional cash transfers

By Claire Ichou

Around one billion people receive conditional cash transfers today, which have been praised as the magic bullet for poverty eradication. Such programmes are being implemented in Latin America and Africa. But they raise numerous ethical questions

La main qui donne est toujours au dessus de celle qui reçoit - Amadou Hampâté Bâ
‘It is justice, not charity, that is wanting in the world’- Mary Wollstonecraft, ‘A Vindication of the Rights of Woman’ (1792)

Bodies of evidence have shown that Conditional Cash Transfers (CCTs), as a form of social protection, can reduce inequality and poverty (DFID, 2011; World Bank, 2009). Conditional Cash Tranfers are payments made to poor households on the condition that they comply with a set of requirements and invest in their children’s human capital. CCT programmes have led to an uptake in health services, health outcomes and nutritional status of children as well as school enrolment and attendance (Lagarde et al., 2009; DFID, 2011; World Bank, 2009).

Around one billion people receive Conditional Cash Transfers in the world today. The largest programmes, Mexico’s Oportunidades and Brazil’s Bolsa Familia, started in the 1990s and have since been replicated in Chile and Turkey to focus on the extremely poor, in Bangladesh and Cambodia to focus on gender inequalities and in Sub-Saharan Africa to improve the living conditions of orphans and vulnerable children and their carers (World Bank, 2009). 

Conditional Cash Transfers are said to be ‘as close as you can come to a magic bullet in development’ (Shibuya, 2008:789) yet I cannot help but feel uneasy about CCT programmes. They embody all the dilemmas I have with development as a discipline and as a field of practice. Development is understood as the creation of ‘enabling environments for people to enjoy long, healthy and creative lives’ and to ‘enlarge people's choices’ (UNDP, 1990). Its underlying principle, to me, is to recognise others as fellow human beings. But I feel that power relations at stake between humans distort most forms of genuine concerns, and by extension, respect. Consequently, I wonder about the legitimacy of development interventions. 

A wealth of literature has been published on CCTs and its outcomes (DFID, 2011; World Bank, 2009). It will not be reviewed here. The aim of this reflexive note is to discuss development ethics by using Conditional Cash Transfers as a case study. Development ethics is defined as:

‘a space of analysis, evaluation and action regarding the trajectory of societies, with special reference to suffering, injustice and exclusion within societies and between societies at a global scale. Its typical focus on humans in their own right, irrespective of location, rather than as abstract functioning units in an economy, supports a politics of social change that accepts human dignity as a priority.’Gasper and Truong, 2005: 373

I will question whether CCT prioritise human dignity by first giving an overview of the methodology and underlying principles of CCT programmes in alleviating poverty and then analyse them in the light of ethics. I will conclude with personal reflections on development.

1- CCT: PRIORITISING HUMAN DIGNITY?
Conditional Cash Transfers propose to alleviate destitution though direct, non-contributory, regular cash transfers to poor households. Beneficiaries of cash transfers have to comply with prescribed investments in the human capital of their children. The conditionalities mostly involve health check ups; nutrition and immunization programmes; health information talks for parents and school enrolment and attendance. Most CCT programmes make payments to the mother of the household (or alternatively to the student).

Cash transfers are understood as short-term strategies that increase household incomes and smooth their consumption. These demand side subsidies are also meant to remove indirect costs ( cost of transport, hospital fees…etc) and opportunity costs (e.g. loss of income) perceived as obstacles to accessing health or education services.

Cash transfers are also direct long-term investments in human capital and an incentive for behaviour change. Indeed, health and education hold positive externalities and can enhance sustainable livelihoods. They can break intergenerational transmission of poverty, increase skills on the labour market and decrease criminality (World Bank, 2009). This ‘quiet revolution’ (Dfid, 2011:i) consequently ‘becomes part of a strategy to secure greater economic competitiveness’ (World Bank quoted in Molyneux, 2008: 8).

This utilitarian approach to social protection is further enhanced by ‘attaching a constraint on the behaviour of people one is trying to help’ (World Bank, 2009:8). The rationale for delivering cash transfers conditionally is based on (1) the argument that investment in children’s human capital is too low and (2) on political economy. 

First, conditionality may become a push factor when parents have imperfect information and therefore hold misguided beliefs about education and health. Conditionality can also play a role when, due to incomplete altruism, parents discount their children’s future or, as theorised by behavioural economics, parents take myopic decisions against their children’s human capital (World Bank, 2009).

Second, conditionality may be perceived as a ‘social contract’ rather than a ‘pure hand out’ by taxpayers and voters. Behavioural science has demonstrated that people may be ready to incur financial losses to reward ‘those poor households who are ready to make the effort’, that is, ‘the deserving poor’ (World Bank, 2009:60). States are therefore considered as partners to recipients who can decide freely on their consumption on the condition that they take actions to improve their lives. Some countries talk about ‘co-responsibility’ rather than ‘conditionality’.
In brief, I have attempted to give an overview of the definition and rationale of Conditional Cash Transfers. It intended to give readers background information to assess moral questions raised by CCT programmes.

2. REFLECTIONS ON THE ETHICS OF CCTS
Conditional Cash Transfer programmes provide a good illustration of developmental processes and ethical issues at stake in development. I will attempt to demonstrate that CCT programmes fail to adequately meet ethical principles. Questions of moral principles and ethics appear to not to be taken into consideration yet CCT programmes are praised as ‘a magic bullet against poverty’.

2.1 PERCEPTIONS OF THE ‘OTHERS’
Individuals are entitled to make informed decisions about their personal matter. Autonomy is considered as a reaction against paternalism. The latter is defined as the ‘practice on the part of people in authority of restricting the freedom and responsibilities of those subordinate to or otherwise dependent on them in their supposed interest’ (Oxford dictionary). Paternalism can be related to an abuse of power and a restriction of freedom. The World Bank (2009:51) explicitly makes use of paternalism when justifying conditionality. It states:
‘The idea that poor people need the push (or nudge) of government ‘incentives’ to behave in ways that are ‘good for them’ is a very old notion. It seems to imply that if left to their own devices, these agents somehow are not capable of choosing what is in their best interests…. Paternalism well may be justified if the individuals in question hold persistently erroneous beliefs.’

The UN Department for Social and Economic Affairs (2010) is critical of the assumption that conditionality is necessary because poor people are engaged in irrational behaviour and do not understand their own best interest. It overlooks structural factors and suggests that poverty is an individual phenomenon. UNDESA further suggests that it blames poor people and ‘roots poverty in individual pathologies’. This further contradicts the ethical principle of non-maleficence.

2.2 CAN WE POTENTIALLY ‘DO GOOD’?
Development practitioners themselves hold prejudices and enforce stigma upon CCT recipients. Their use of language is quite meaningful (See Foucault in Lukes, 1974). A review of reports and articles on Conditional Cash Transfers better demonstrates the state of mind of development practitioners. 

There is a strong rhetoric on control, enforcement and punishment of beneficiaries. Whereas the World Bank (2009:7) suggests to carefully monitor ‘compliance’ to conditionalities, Lagarde et al. (2009:11) state that ‘it is essential to define as requirements some behaviour or actions that are easily controlled*’. It is further recommended that programmes should ‘minimize the potential for manipulation and abuse*’ (World Bank, 2009:24) and that ‘the degree to which non complying households are penalized*’ can ensure better compliance and consequently better outcomes (World Bank, 2009:23).
As mentioned above, poverty-stricken people appear to unequivocally hold the responsibility for being poor. It is argued that taxpayers will preferably support ‘those who are seen to be helping themselves than other equally poor people who are seen to be lazy or careless*’ (World Bank, 2009:60). There is a general belief that poor people are idle. Thus, one of the fears when launching CCT programmes was to distort labour markets ‘either because beneficiaries would choose to consume more leisure at higher income levels or because they would cut back in work in order to continue to appear ‘poor enough*’ to be eligible for transfers’ (World Bank, 2009:16). It explains further why it is politically more acceptable to target children, as it is believed that ‘it is hard to blame children for being poor’ (World Bank, 2009:11). 

Concerned about creating dependency, most Conditional Cash Transfer programmes in Sub-Saharan Africa target people who are ‘labour constrained’ or ‘incapacitated’ and can therefore not be part of the labour market. CCTs target ‘ultra poor’; ‘extreme poor’; ‘hardcore poor’ or ‘non viable households’ (McCord, 2009). However there is no empirical or ethical justification, when, in some countries, most of the population lives under the poverty line, to select some people and leave others without any form of social protection. The fragmentation of society further excludes poor people (McCord, 2009b). 

In this regard, Dfid (2011:v) mentions that ‘targeting choices need to be determined by contexts rather than one-size-fits-all approach’. However the roll out of CCT programmes in 27 countries by 2009 was heavily incentivised by external funding. In some sub-Saharan African countries for example, CCT programmes reflect donors’ priorities without real governments’ ownership and support (McCord, 2009a). CCT programmes are thus implemented as an inflexible blueprint that does not take multiple contextual influences into account. A qualitative research undertaken in El Salvador, Mexico, Nicaragua and Turkey (Adato, 2011) has shown that socio-cultural and structural factors influence health care decisions and may lead to an under participation in CCT programmes. Among different issues cited, Adato et al. (2009) mentioned that beliefs around traditional medicine contradicted the biomedical approach to child and maternal health used by CCTs. Another issue was the asymmetrical power relations with service providers and the perception by beneficiaries that medical staff looked down upon them. Finally, gender norms and relations strongly influence CCT programmes.

Many CCT programmes only include women (Adato, 2011). It is assumed that they ‘will put funds to better use than will men’ (World Bank, 2009:11) and it further intends to empower them thanks to increased financial autonomy. Indeed, they are provided with financial support for their care work and offered opportunities to participate in community activities. Workshops and talks are meant to give them better access to health and parenting information as well as enhance their self-esteem (Holmes and Jones, 2010). Holmes and Jones (2010:5) therefore state that the co-responsibility approach places responsibility on women but has the merit to empower programme participants to become involved in supporting themselves and their families to exit poverty and extreme vulnerabilities over time. Critics have, however, argued that targeting women conditionally to their maternal responsibilities reinforces gender roles and stereotypes. Indeed, cash transfers rely on women’s social identity as mothers (Molyneux, 2008). It thus reinforces gender divisions within households, expecting mothers to selflessly undertake reproductive chores. Time poverty is another issue. CCT beneficiaries have mentioned that fulfilling programme demands is difficult and may conflict with their income-generating activities. Certain programmes further expect women to volunteer in community activities. It can thus be argued that ‘these women are converted into a new social category with more obligations for the simple reason that they receive a subsidy’ (Bey, 2003 quoted in Molyneux, 2008:52). Furthermore, whereas the international community has recognised the need to work with men and boys to achieve gender equality, the exclusion of men from CCT programmes is notable. Antagonizing men and women overlooks the complexity and dynamics of gender relations. Molyneux (2008: 58) concludes that ‘an underlying problem with the design of CCT is that they not only depend on the conditions that make women vulnerable but they may actively reinforce them’.

3. CONCLUDING REFLECTIONS
I have attempted to highlight here some issues in development as a discipline and practice. Whereas CCT programmes appear to be successful in meeting health and education outcomes, they raise a series of concerns regarding their underlying principles and methods. Generally does the end ever justify the means? Based on this case study, I wonder whether we can accept to alienate and paternalize others, to stigmatize people, to impose foreign interventions and to potentially increase harm in the name of ‘doing good’ or in the name development? 

I navigate in between institutional and activist spaces that promote contradicting world views on power and development. I am sometimes tempted to ‘do good’ and acquire privileges but I am then reminded that ‘the gains of some groups have been directly conditional on planned sufferings of others’ (Gasper: 2011:1). I find it terribly difficult to reconciliate their different narratives. I therefore locate myself in a constant state of tension and discomfort. 

It sometimes leaves me numb and powerless. Like Mr Brown in The Comedians (Greene, 1966), I feel that ‘somehow, somewhere [to have] completely lost the capacity to be concerned’. I am overwhelmed and feel disconnected. This de-linking from humanity appears as a smoothing feeling. After all life just goes on and there is not much I can do. But Goulet (1976, quoted in Gasper, 2008: 13) reminds me that ‘Ethicists themselves constantly vacillate between ethical paralysis or compromise in the face of power, and energetic creativity newly released whenever they catch a faint glimpse of the power of ethics itself... the power of ethics to counter the power of wealth, of politics, of bureaucratic inertia, of defeatism, of social pathology.’

At an individual level, I find the power of ethics and its ‘energetic creativity’ in literature. George Orwell, Jack London, John Steinbeck have taught me to think critically. James Baldwin and Romain Gary have stroke me with their brutal honesty and have reminded me to find the human in every person. The philosophy of Ubuntu has connected me to others and has reminded me that ‘I am because you are’. I cannot exist without you.

I derive agency from the sense of togetherness. I have drawn my strength and articulated my dreams around feminist principles. Third wave and post colonial feminism have offered me analytical tools to understanding the intersectionalities of power relations. It has further given me methodological tools to reflect and to take action. Feminism has taught me the power of collective action. Indeed, power is the strength required to bring about change. Belonging to sisterhood and collectively reflecting and dreaming the world, crossing the line and reclaiming power create solidarity.

True solidarity is based on recognising others as fellow human beings. I will therefore conclude with Kant who reminds us to ‘act in such a way that you treat humanity, whether in your own person or in the person of any other, never merely as a means to an end, but always at the same time as an end.’ (Kant, 1785). I would like to suggest that there can be no development without putting people at the centre. CCT programmes may reach their intended targets but fail to improve humanity.

* Claire Ichou considers herself a lucky global citizen. After extensive travel in Southern Africa and the Caribbean, amazing encounters and two masters degrees in development studies and public health, she has decided to go back to France and live according to her principles of feminism and solidarity. She promotes an intersectional understanding of inequalities and dreams about radical changes.

END NOTES
[1] Interestingly ‘intervention’ comes from the Latin verb intervenire which signifies ‘to come between’ or ‘to interrupt’
[2] Emphasis added

Gods Of Africa Curse Their Satanic Souls

Abrefa Busia

They are coming out of their rat-holes, the murderers, we are smoking them out! First Adamafio the devil was chained with his arch demons, but their followers threw more bombs. 

Now we hold them red-handed, "their bloody record of nearly 40 murdered, about 180 blinded, maimed and crippled for life, and an attempt on the life of Osagyefo Dr Kwame Nkrumah, Founder of Ghana and Leader of the African Revolution. 

This is what came of the Ghana Congress Party, this record of "Busia intellectualism" the notorious former United Party and its Shifimist-Emashinonn-offspring.

See for yourselves, Ghanaians! 

Now we know no force on earth or in heaven for that matter is greater than Osagyefo Dr Kwame Nkrumah, Illustrious Holder of the Torch of African Redemption, and our Party, great Convention People's Party of Ghana.

The Ghana revolution is born out of real sacrifice and suffering, from the sweat of the toiling masses of our people and not even hydrogen bombs can hold back the forward march to Work and Happiness!

Eternal glory to the Security Forces who will continue to foil attempt after attempt by foreign imperialists and their despicable hirelings to sabotage our progress.

The rats! They are coming' out of their rat-holes!! 

There is no doubt at all the link between the Gbedemah-Busia gang and Adamako-crabbish group responsible for mass murders of women, young people and children to Accra in the past six months. 

Nor is there any doubt that the criminal gang is in the pay of a foreign murder organization, a busy body Intelligence agency which has hardly any other "Intelligence " other than' carrying' the battle into the thick of the crowd." 

What other than a murder organization, incorporated would spend £25,602 sterling on bombs for the assassination of an outstanding national Hero and Emancipator in the person of Osagyefo Dr Kwame Nkrumah, Ghana's Fount of Honour? 

"What you have done to us is not good at all," wrote Kpatia and Gambo, two other assassins, "if you do not send us the money in time we will come out boldly to tell the powerful man to know how much money Adamafio gave you and the bombs. . ." 

For thirty pieces or silver, Judas Iscariot sold his Master, for the same old silver and coppers Adamano, Busia, Gbedemah, Richardson, Bosompem and other foreign hirelings, have killed over 40 Ghanaians and wounded, Maimed and crippled at least 180.

But no amount or dollars, or bombs can halt the upsurge in Africa against foreign rule. It is high time this is recognized by the intelligence agencies and murder squads.

The whole rotten gang must he dispatched with all the speed that is possible in the circumstances. 

For these are not human beings, they are sub-human: they are devils re-incarnated as men and we are not ruling out the possibility of women being involved in the whole cowardly plot.

ollowing the second of the atrocious incidents on Dodowa Road, more than 1,800.000 Ghanaians from all over the country took part in demonstrations demanding the immediate public hanging of the bomb murder gang led by the fiend Adamano, and others.

This is still the cry of seven million peace-loving citizens, of Ghana. We are fed up with the criminal, hooligan elements defiling the country. We are fed up with the double-fact intrigue of the reactionaries and enemies of the working people. 

Crush the Subversionists

What Osagyefo has achieved In 13 year, of  uncompromising struggle against colonialism

the  same evil forces behind the bombs today, was achieved with the active support and toil of the broad masses of the people, and irreversible. 

Our road is one way-Work and Happiness via Nkrumaism, and the battle is Joined. All the quislings, the agents and running dogs of Imperialists who can only operate in the
dark-like old Nicodemus-will be crushed With the full strength of the people's revolution.

Saboteurs beware! 

Another devil is chained but our vigilance is unabated.
As Comrade Welbeck pointed out at the rally yesterday "we are at the testing moments in our glorious revolution". 

People of Ghana, rise and smash the counter-revolutionaries and their foreign masters.

Long live Osagyefo Dr Kwame Nkrumah, the Nations Fount of Honour.

Long live impregnable C.P.P!         

Forward to Work and Happiness!!

Echos From The Past

BOMB MEN TO HANG

“You will be taken from here to the prison from which you came and hanged by the neck until you are dead.

The special Criminal Division of the High Court this morning sentenced Teiko Tagoe, Joseph Quaye Mensah, Joseph Adotei Addo, Malam Mama Tula and Anum Yemoh to death after it had found them guilty of treason.

Sulemanna Jeremiah and Asaaba Quarcoe were found guilty of misprision of treason. Sulemana was sentenced to eight years’ imprisonment with hard labour.

The special court composed of Chief Justice Sir Arku Korsah. President, Mr Justice W.B. Van Lare and Mr Justice Sarkodee-Adoo.

The court’s decision is final.

Sir Aku Korsah told the first five accused person, “You will be taken from here to the prison from which you came and hanged by the neck until you are dead. Your bodies will be buried at a place to be appointed by the President. May the Lord have mercy upon you.”

In his 19 page judgment Sir Arku Korsah dismissed the explanation by Teiko that he intended to throw the grenade merely to frighten the supporters of Government is false.

“We have no doubt whatsoever that Teiko Tagoe, well knew of the purpose of the “operations,” and that all his various acts were carefully planned. In furtherance of the conspiracy, to overthrow the Government by unlawful means.

As regarding Joseph Quaye Mensah, Sir Arku said there was evidence which proves that Teiko had taken instructions from him, concerning the part Teiko played in the throwing of hand grenades in the course of what the conspirators called “Operation”.

 Sir Arku said Mensah had admitted having taught Teiko how to manipulate the grenade before throwing it, and to get away from the spot, as fast as possible after throwing it.

 The court president went on “Yet he says his instruction to 1st accused, were that the grenade should be thrown into the gutter, frighten the Convention People’s Party members, who are supporters of the Government, in order to frighten them so that the President may be compelled to order a general election for change of Government because he is opposed to the policy of the Government”.

Sir Arku also observed that it was not an offence for anyone to desire or endeavour to procure a change of Government by lawful means. This, he said was the privilege of every citizen.

But to endeavour by violence that is with hand grenade to procure a change of government is one of the most serious offences in our criminal code.

It does not matter, Sir Arku said even if the explosions did not cause death or injuries to anyone; the mere fact that the conspiratiors had decided to use hand grenades for such a purpose, constituted the crime of treason.

On Joseph Adotei Addo, Sir Arku Korsah said the evidence supported the view that his complicity in the conspiracy dates from the very inception of it in this country, and on his own showing he had associations with the Refugees when the original plot was hatched during the time when he and Obetsebi Lamptey were in Lome.

 The Court, Sir Arku remarked rejected Addo’s explanation that his complicity in the conspiracy, is either accidental or against his will “In fact we believe he is one of the original planners, and indeed the medium between Obetsebi Lamptey, and his associate because Obetsebi Lamptey could not move about freely in Accra and he in touch with those engaged in carrying out the acts in furtherance of the conspiracy.” Sir Arku said.

 Touching on Malam Mama Tula, Sir Arku said evidence against him and his own admission, prove that he had been associating with Obetsebi in connection with preliminary preparations. Which some group of Ghanaian refugees in Lome, were working prior to the return of Obetsebi to Ghana.

Malam Tula, Sir Arku said had admitted that on three occasions in the month of July, he was instructed by Obetsebi, to proceed with the 6 N.T. boys each armed with a hand grenade to functions where the President was expected to take important part.

With regard to Anum Yemoh, the chief Justice said the court held the view that Yemoh took part in the conspiracy that he must have known that Obetsebi required his cottage as a hideout from which he could carry out what they called “operations”.

(First Published in the Evening News of Wednesday, April 17th 1953)